OUR CHRISTMAS CARD PHOTOSHOOT? OH, WE DID THAT IN OCTOBER

JOUELLE J BARACHO, 39, works w for a bank and lives li in Surrey with husband Steve, 37, also a banker, and daughters Jiselle, six, and Shanelle, tw two. She says: F FESTIVITIES start in October when we have a professional photoshoot for our Christmas card. Our friends are always desperate to see it drop through the letterbox!

We’ve been doing it s since Jiselle was born and have posed in everything from festive jumpers to t tutus and reindeer antlers. l This year the photographer made her studio a Santa’s workshop.

My cut-off date for having in the tree and decorations t up, including the o outside lights, is November b 28, and this year I’ve o outstripped my target.

The gifts are bought and wrapped and the invitations have gone out for the Christmas Day party we throw every year at our three- bedroom home for around 30 family and friends. We

play games, open presents, do Secret Santa, eat from the buffet I create, drink and be merry. We’ll kick off with a Buck’s Fizz toast, then move on to various gins, plus Baileys and liqueur shots.

Preparing the food takes me a week. I devise quirky festive names for everything. This year, for the kids, I’ll be making sausage stockings, fish snowballs and meat bauble curry.

There will also be duck, turkey, pork, chicken, side dishes and desserts. Last year I made a Portuguese pudding from biscuits and cream in the shape of mistletoe, and trifles decorated with snowmen carved from strawberries.

Food and drink just for Christmas Day cost around £400, but is a small price for having so many of our loved ones together. Steve and I don’t go mad on gifts.

Now I can sit with a glass of mulled wine and wait for the big day.